’Jabba the Jihadi’ captured in Iraq

A MORBIDLY obese ISIS fanatic dubbed "Jabba the Jihadi" has been captured by Iraqi forces - who loaded him onto a flatbed truck because he couldn't fit in a police car.

The 560-pound (254kg) mufti Abu Abdul Bari, also known as Shifa al-Nima, was arrested Thursday by an elite SWAT team of the Nineveh regiment in the city of Mosul, according to Stars and Stripes.

The jumbo jihadist was known for "provocative speeches against the security forces" and is considered one of the top leaders of "ISIS gangs," Iraqi security officials said in a statement, the New York Post reported.

Bari issued religious decrees - or fatwas - ordering the execution of scholars and clerics who refused to pledge allegiance to ISIS when the terror group occupied the city, the statement said.

During the heyday of the group's self-styled caliphate in 2014, he also ordered the destruction of a mosque built at the site believed to be the burial place of the biblical prophet Jonah, who once had a famous encounter with a whale.

Maajid Nawaz, founder of the London-based anti-extremism think Quilliam, also shared images of the heavyweight's arrest.

"He was so overweight, maybe from remaining sedentary in his hiding place, that he had to be taken by police in the back of a pick up truck," he wrote on Facebook.

"Most religious justifications provided to ISIS for enslaving, raping, torturing, ethnic cleansing & massacring Iraqis, Syrians & others are from this paltry beast who can't even stand on his own two legs," he wrote.

"Do not underestimate the psychological blow the image of this obese monster being arrested is to ISIS. Gluttony is frowned upon by jihadists. But also, ISIS branded themselves as fighters possessing rare courage & discipline … meanwhile this walrus was their top religious cleric."

And in an ode to the epic space saga, he added: "Today was a good day for the Force & a bad day for evil."

Macer Gifford, a British citizen who fought with a US-backed Kurdish militia in Syria, applauded the arrest and compared Bari to the slug-like gang lord of the Star Wars universe who lived on the desert planet Tatooine.

"I'm delighted to say that the Islamic State's very own Jabba the Hutt has been captured in Mosul," he said in a tweet.

"As long as the Devil bastes him properly Shifa al Nima should crisp nicely in hell … He literally looks like the world's biggest chicken," Gifford said.